The Pact cycle from Future Sight is pretty good for the most part. Technically, they are all "free" spells. While they have a pretty big drawback of having to pay a certain amount of mana during the next upkeep or you lose the game, they are usually worth it. Pact of Negation, Slaughter Pact, and Summoner's Pact are all cards that see play in Modern and other formats.

Even Intervention Pact sees occasional play and saw a spike when Madcap Experiment decks began to be brewed. But the red Pact, Pact of the Titan, hasn't seen much play since being a part of some Hive Mind Legacy lists back in 2011 to 2013.

What Hive Mind does is make a copy each instant or sorcery spell that a player casts for each player. With the Pact spells, if you cast a Pact that the opposing player can't pay for during his or her upkeep, that player instantly loses. All the Hive Mind player had to do was cast the Pact that the opposing player had no way of being able to pay for. It's a mean way to win. While Pact of the Titan wasn't close to the best of the 5 pacts for this purpose, it did see play in some lists.

Hive Mind decks aren't really much of a part of the Legacy metagame anymore, so Pact of the Titan went by the way side. It's easily the weakest of the Pacts. While creating a 4/4 creature at instant speed for no mana sounds awesome, having to pay 4R at the next upkeep is rarely worth it. However, when Pact of Negation, Slaughter Pact and Summoner's Pact were reprinted in the original Modern Masters sets, Intervention Pact and Pact of the Titan were not. This meant that their supplies have remained relatively low.

So it was only a matter of time before Intervention Pact's price spiked. But while that spike make some sense, when Pact of the Titan was bought out on TCGplayer on 10/29/16, many heads were scratched. The TCG Player mid price hit almost $7 before falling to about $6 a couple days later. But no one is really biting at this price, which means it's pretty clear that this was an intentional buyout for speculative purposes.

Is this card ever going to be good enough to justify more than its original price of about $1? It's doubtful. This was really just a case of someone buying out a card that had low supply that may see play again at some point. This card is fine for what it does, but it's not something that most decks want. Some Commander decks will play it, but it's not something that you're going to see on a regular basis. This is one I'd sell high on if you happen to have any copies laying around. There should be a race to the bottom sooner or later, but this card will now always be worth more than it was before.

June 2017 Update: Pact of the Titan still has a market price of almost $5 on TCGPlayer. I would still recommend selling this card, as I can't see it maintaining this high of a price long-term. Although, after being at this price point for a long time, it's not anything you have to sell in a hurry.

While some of the Innistrad block Curses turned out to be widely playable cards, even in Standard, it seems that the Wizards design team went sort of overboard with trying to make Curses of a deck of their own. Curse of Misfortunes is meant to be a tutor for your Curses to pile on the pain.

There's nothing wrong with a Curse that essentially allows you to pull a Curse out of your deck at the beginning of each of your turns and play it for free. It's cool that they came out with a card like this, as it would seem to make some of the more expensive Curses much more playable.

What Curse of Misfortunes does is very good in theory, but there are a couple problems with this card. First of all, it costs 5 mana, which while is probably a proper cost for what it does, means that it doesn't hit the board for quite a while. Also, you can't attach more than one of the same Curse to a player using this effect. That's what really kills this card.

While in theory it does quite a bit for you in the long run, it's not really worth the investment when you could just play another Curse instead. The design is cool, but game play wise, Curse of Misfortunes just never really worked out. It's a bulk rare, sadly.

The Curses were a new kind of card introduced with the Innistrad set. They were built upon in the following set, Dark Ascension, and later on in Commander 2013. Only a couple have really caught on in the long run. One of these is Curse of Bloodletting.

Granted, it is a bit expensive to cast with a converted mana cost of 5. But for what it does, Curse of Bloodletting is well worth it. It's a one-sided Furnace of Rath, and doubling all damage done to a player is pretty amazing. It doesn't include life paid as a cost (such as paying life for Phyrexian mana costs), but it still does quite a lot of work.

On Rebuilding the Deck, we'll take a look at some interesting, but fairly successful decks of the past and try and revive them in Modern or some other Eternal format. Today, we're exploring creating a Burn at the Stake combo deck in Modern.During the Magic 2014 Standard season, there were a lot of combo decks built around the sorcery, Burn at the Stake. Some of these decks were relatively successful in tournament play. However, as many combo decks are, they can run inconsistently at times - the "draw the wrong half of your deck" syndrome.Burn at the Stake really only needs a few untapped creatures to be successful. You tap any number of your creatures and Burn at the Stake deals damage to a target creature or player equal to three times the number of creatures you tapped. For those that wanted to play Burn at the Stake, but hated the inconsistency of combo decks, there was a Boros aggro version called Haste Stake. This deck didn't enjoy a long life due to the fact that half of the cards in this deck rotated out of Standard as of the release of Theros. Still, it was worthwhile to check out the fun interactions that Hellrider, Ogre Battledriver and the token cards provide. This particular list went 4-0 at a Standard Daily Event on 8/16/2013. It was brewed and piloted by Magic Online user Scrubbi.

There's a lot of good stuff here, but since no one in the world is playing this Standard format anymore, we'll have to port it over to Modern. Can we do that and still have it be effective? Also, you may notice that there is already some Black mana in here. We'll be taking advantage of that in a bit.First, let's see what made this deck work!

Creature Line-UpAs with all of the successful Burn at the Stake decks, Young Pyromancer is the heart of the action in this deck. While the instants and sorceries are far different than a typical Stake deck, they work just as well as any others in creating Elemental tokens off of Pyromancer. In fact, the majority of them are token generators themselves.Where this deck truly is different, however, is in its inclusion of full play-sets of Hellrider and Ogre Battledriver. Hellrider, obviously has been an aggro favorite for quite sometime and it's not hard to see why, Having haste on a 3/3 is not bad for 2RR. But whenever any of your creatures attack (even if you don't swing with Hellrider himself) upon declaring attacks, each of your creatures deals 1 damage to target creature or player. This damage, in the aggressive decks he has been played in, can often prove to be lethal damage.

The most notable card here, though, is Ogre Battledriver. While he has not gotten much love yet from competitive Standard players, he is very much at home in this deck. While he himself does not have haste, Battledriver gives each of your creatures entering the battlefield +2/+0 and haste, This of course includes tokens, meaning the Young Pyromancer Elemental tokens will enter as 3/1's with haste. While they will not retain their +2/+0 boost, Battledriver makes every one of your tokens that much more dangerous.

Non-Creature SpellsThis is where the deck really gets interesting. Present are the 4 Krenko's Command, 4 Faithless Looting, 3 Burn at the Stake, and 1 Reforge the Soul common to Stake decks. The Commands give you 2 1/1 tokens plus the benefit of Pyromancer's own token. 4 Faithless Looting helps you card filter, and they are also able to be flashed back. Reforge the Soul is useful for refilling your hand while also possibly dumping your opponent's most useful cards in the graveyard,But as you've already noticed this is not a blue/red deck with Goblin Electromancer and Battle Hymn, which serves as the primary engine along with Pyromancer with the main win condition in order to reach the amount of untapped creatures for a one-shot kill with Burn at the Stake. No, this is a deck that focuses on tokens, specifically sorceries that only generate tokens. This strategy still interacts perfectly with "Young Pyromancer. Note that there are no Epic Experiments to help solidify the win condition, nor any draw power beyond Looting to get you the pieces you need for the Stake combo. In fact, looking at the non-creature line-up, Burn at the Stake looks as if it is only a tiny part of this deck's win potential.Instead, you have 4 Intangible Virtue to instantly make your elemental and goblin tokens bigger. But they are not alone. Full play-sets of Gather the Townsfolk and Lingering Souls allow you to make even more cheap creatures and abuse Pyromancer's token-generating ability. Plus, having access to black mana in the deck means you'll be able to flashback the Souls, making yet another token with Pyromancer! The other part of Lingering Souls is that those tokens have flying, allowing for evasive damage that can easily become quite relevant.

The Mana BaseThe mana base in this deck is a bit complex. The combination of buddy and shock lands are crucial in allowing this deck to constantly have access to the colors which it needs to win consistently. The 4 Blood Crypts, 2 Godless Shrines, and 1 Isolated Chapel are in here to mainly be able to flashback Souls as well as provide black for the two sideboard Rakdos' Return,The inclusion of a single Mutavault I find to be a bit perplexing, There's no tribal theme to this deck, so it seems to be in here only to act as one more cheap creature if you need it for whatever reason.Slayers' Stronghold is a great utility land that gives a target creature +2/+0 vigilance and haste until end of turn. While it won't be used all that often, used on the right creature, it can force an awkward block or two, and if your creature survives, it will still be untapped and able to block..Deck Strategy and SideboardThe main goal of this deck is to get out Young Pyromancer along with the many token-producers in the deck. Having out Intangible Virtue makes those tokens scary very quickly. You also have Hellrider to make them ping upon attacking and Ogre Battledriver to give them haste and an extra 2 power until end of turn.Burn at the Stake becomes almost an alternate win condition, as your tokens may often be enough to finish the game on their own.The sideboard has some interesting cards in it that definitely help in some popular match-ups, Wear / Tear is a fuse card that would eventually see tons of play in Modern. It's very powerful in that it can for just 3 mana destroy both an enchantment and artifact, Either side of the card is powerful enough on its own, so it easily makes a good play against artifact and enchantment heavy decks. It's also an instant, which is quite good.The play-set of Legion Loyalist is an interesting and relevant inclusion. It's good in aggressive match-ups where giving your many tokens first strike and trample can really matter. With your tokens becoming bigger through Intangible Virtue and Ogre Battledriver pumps, alpha strikes suddenly become a bit less risky for you.The 2 Rakdos' Return take advantage of the black mana already available in the deck, and provide a way for you to both discard your opponent's hand and deal some damage to their face, They were great against control match-ups and decks like mono-green and Naya Blitz in past standard formats that depend on combat tricks in hand to do a bunch of their damage. Some of these types of decks still exist in Modern, as well.Assemble the Legion is another nice way to make tokens, although I'm not sure of the exact match-ups in which boarding this in would be helpful.Ratchet Bomb is a tricky card in this deck. Since your tokens are all 0-drops, you can set this at one easily. If you find you have to set it to two, keep in mind you'll lose your Young Pyromancers and Intangible Virtues. However, you may find board-states where losing Pyromancer and Virtue actually don't matter if your token army is big enough.Budget Friendly?If you already owned most the mana base for this deck, you could easily build it under $100 in either paper or online. The dual lands are the biggest investment. At the time, this definitely qualified as a budget deck. However, besides Pyromancer, Battledriver, and the shock lands, most of this deck as useless in Standard past October 2013. At the time I first reviewed this deck, I felt that a Modern brew of this deck may work. We've never seen a widely successful version really emerge. There was a Mono-Red Tokens deck built by Corbin Hosler, however. It only runs one copy of Burn at the Stake in the mainboard, and I've refered to this build in trying to port this strategy over to Modern. Still, there is hope that we can keep the core of Haste Stake intact while speeding up the deck to keep its flavor.What Needs to Go and What Can StayYoung Pyromancer is awesome and proven in Modern. These guys are staying no matter what. In fact, in that Mono-Red tokens deck we just mentioned, they were the only creatures! Hellrider is a great creature, but he's a bit too slow for Modern at 4 mana. That's not where you want to be in an aggro deck. Also, Ogre Battledriver proved to be a bit too slow even for Standard except in the sort of md-range strategy that Haste Stake was going for. It was mildly effective in that format, but Battledriver simply isn't fast enough for Eternal play. Both of these guys have to go and be replaced with swifter options.In rebuilding this deck, I considered going a Goblin-oriented route. Legion Loyalist is a Modern playable card. Goblin Guide is proven in Eternal formats. Reckless Bushwhacker from Battle for Zendikar could do a bit of what Battledriver did. Goblin Bushwhacker is a nice complement to that strweatgy that could take the place of Hellrider. I even considered Goblin Rabblemaster. But forcing your Goblins to attack every turn isn't where I want to be at all with this deck. I'd be better off just running Goblins! 8-Whack, which has that name for the Bushwhackers, is actually a decent Modern deck. But that's not what I was trying to build.We still want to have Burn at the Stake, as that's our main win condition. As 5-drops, we have to consistently build up to these. Reforge the Soul can stay, since it has Miracle and won't always cost us five mana. Intangible Virtue is fine in White Black Tokens, but not going to work in a strategy that really needs to streamline and focus on building up as much Red mana as possible as quickly as possible. In that line of thinking, as much as I want to keep Lingering Souls, we really don't want to be splashing black for just them. To keep our mana base more consistent, the deck really ends up building itself in a mono-Red direction.After making all of these cuts, I figured adding 4 Lightning Bolt and keeping a white splash for Raise the Alarm (an instant speed Token producer) and 4 copies of Boros Charm (one of the best spells in Modern in my opinion).The sideboard had to change entirely. I used Corbin Hosler's board from his Mono-Red version because it has some great things going on in it.2 Crumble to Dust3 Defense Grid3 Gut Shot3 Relic of Progenitus4 Shattering SpreeCrumble to Dust hits greedy mana bases by exiling nonbasic lands and potentially cutting off a player from one of their colors. Defense Grid makes it near impossible to have opponent's counter our shenanigans during our turn. Gut Shot deals with problem 1 toughness creatures by being able to pay 2 life instead of 1 mana. Shattering Spree can kill a lot of artifacts at once, making Affinity sad. We can tweak the sideboard as we see how this deck needs to cover its weaknesses.The other way I was going was to go straight combo. We would add in Manamorphose and Battle Hymn to speed up card draw and mana production in place of the Bushwhackers and Faithless Looting. We would also cut the burn for more card draw in Gitaxian Probe and Infernal Plunge will trade a token for 3 more Red mana. Also, we'd be cutting Raise the Alarm and Boros Charm to go straight Mono-Red. In the process we'll add 2 copies of Hordeling Outburst, which costs 3 mana but gives us 3 tokens. The other 2 slots will go to a card from Hosler's deck, Haze of Rage, which not only has Storm to make itself more powerful, but Buyback, as well! As it turned out, I brewed and playtested three different versions. The first version was an 8-Whack sort of build and it was really not sure what kind of deck it actually was. My second build was about the same as Corbin's, except it had 3 Burn at the Stake and only one Reforge the Soul. I also kept a Boros mana base by keeping Sacred Foundry and adding Inspiring Vantage from Kaladesh. This way I kept in Raise the Alarm, but cut the Bolts and Charms.At first, I found this build did a LOT better. It won the first match I played with it two games to one. Manamorphose and Gitaxian Probe were awesome. While I didn't get an actual kill with Burn at the Stake, I did deal 15 in one game and finished off the game with tokens. The other game I won I won with all tokens. I won the next match with just beating down with tokens. I kept drawing my Reforge the Soul in my opening hand or off of Manamorphose/Gitaxian Probe, which was extremely annoying. But I did cast it once off of a Battle Hymn. Infernal Plunge was awesome too, helping me to continuous ramp into more token producers. This deck seemed really solid!But then it started drawing the wrong half of the deck and it kept losing.My third attempt was to go mono-Red and basically do what Corbin's deck is trying to do, except with 3 copies of Burn the Stake and only 1 Reforge the Soul. With this deck I just drew my Stakes and not much else.I really wanted to keep the spirit of Haste Stake. But it really wasn't happening. So in the end, I ended up with Corbin's original deck.Mono-Red TokensCreatures (4)

2 Crumble to Dust3 Defense Grid3 Gut Shot3 Relic of Progenitus4 Shattering SpreeCorbin Hosler's Mono-Red deck can make a lot of tokens and a lot of mana. When I playtested it, the deck relied too much on comboing off, either by getting the one copy of Burn at the Stake, or making more tokens than your opponent can handle. I found too much inconsistency, which is why I wanted to make my own brew in the first place.Basically, if you want to play a Burn the Stake deck in Modern, Corbin Hosler's build seems to be the best. It can win spectacularly, but lose horribly too, especially when you draw no lands or draw all the wrong cards. But Corbin builds great decks and I've seen what it can do when it's running well. Sharp play, plus a little bit of luck, will let this deck win more than it loses.

Fiend of the Shadows isn't one of the best Vampire cards out there. But I jam her in my Olivia Voldaren EDH deck all day. Why's that? Check out her ability when she deals combat damage. Whenever she deals combat damage to a player, that player exiles a card from his or her hand. depriving a player of a card is good enough. But you may play that card for as long as it remains exiled.

Back in the day when people were still drafting Innistrad and Dark Ascension crads, this Fiend gal could get quite a few cards piled up if your opponent didn't have a flyer. A 3/3 flyer isn't all that wonderful, but you can even regenerate her by sacrificing a Human! I'm not sure how many Humans I have poking around in my Vampire decks... probably none. But hey, it was neat to have that option in Limited!This is about as bulk a rare as bulk gets. Even the foils aren't worth a darn, because she was the feature card in one of the Dark Ascension intro packs. But hey, I'll pick these Fiends of the Shadows all day long, because I love getting dimes for them!

You may wonder why Beguiler of Wills is a mythic rare. Turns out that she's pretty good in Limited. Being able to steal opponent's monsters as long as you control the right number of monsters is often just enough to win you the game. As a card that I've personally drafted in the past, I know what she's capable of doing. Even if she's only a 1/1, that tap ability is enough to pay 5 mana for her. The best part is that you get to keep the creature indefinitely, whether our not the Beguiler untaps, and that's why the Wizards development team made her a mythic rare.

If you can untap her and use her ability multiple times in a turn, she can become really abusive. Obviously, she was way too fragile for Standard play. But from day one, Azami, Lady of Scrolls decks wanted to play this. It's not just because she's a Wizard, either. Azami plays so many Wizards that you're going to pretty much always steal the best opponent's creature every turn until someone finally knocks off the Beguiler of Wills. Lots of Commander decks can use her, although she's not a staple anywhere. She's pretty annoying, and that's just awesome.

Archangel's Light is not exactly the best mythic rare out there. In fact, it's easily the worst mythic rare in the Dark Ascension set. However, it is not completely useless, and yes, it has a purpose. Granted 8 mana for any sorcery is pretty pricey. However, just look what it does do: You gain 2 life for each card in your graveyard,then you shuffle your entire graveyard back into your deck. Back when people were playing Innistrad/Dark Ascension Limited, mill was definitely a workable strategy in draft. The fact that it only requires a single white mana is also very, very important. A predominantly blue mill deck can make this work. This card essentially wins you the game by virtue of the fact that you can simply outlast your opponent by gaining a ton of life and recycling all of your cards. So while this is the worst mythic rare in the set, in the context of a mill deck, it basically says "Win Target Game...very slowly and painfully."Since then, Archangel's Light has become a part of some EDH decks. Mostly Narset, Enlightened Master (who can cheat it in to play for nothing) and Oloro, Ageless Ascetic who is gaining lots of life already) have gotten the best use out of it. These particular Commanders can take full advantage of both the life-gain and the restocking. But quite a few other decks have played it. It's just that 9 mana sorceries aren't typically what you're going to be running unless they outright win you the game.

Still, if you come across this card in your collection, don't throw it away in disgust. What it does is extremely epic. It's not what you're trying to do in most Constructed formats. But if you ever face a lifegain deck in Commander, you never know if this one is waiting in the wings.

All five of the 4-color Legendary Creatures in Commander 2016 are pretty interesting options. Atraxa, Praetors' Voice is probably the most competitive. Breya, Etherium Shaper could be quite a silly Thopter-happy artifact deck. Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis make for a new take on "group hug". Saskia the Unyielding can essentially allow you take on two players at once. But Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder offers Commander deck builders an extraordinary amount of power.Yes, Yidris is four colors and that can make casting him difficult. and yes, we had a commander like this before with Maelstrom Wanderer, except that you got immediate dividends when you cast him. Cascade is a crazy ability that essentially casts you free spells. Having to deal combat damage with Yidris first, then having to cast more spells to get cascade seems like a bit too much work. But Yidris does have trample, so it's not all that hard for a 5/4 to get through for at least 1 damage. So is waiting to cast spells during the second main phase is worth the payoff?Whenever you cast a spell with Cascade, it allows you to reveal cards from the top of your deck until you reveal one with a lower converted mana cost. This gives you a free spell, essentially. Maelstrom Wanderer allows you to Cascade twice whenever he is cast. This means you got two free spells. But Yidris takes that a step further, giving you every spell you cast from your hand Cascade. It doesn't give them extra chances to Cascade if they already had it, but getting two spells for the price of one is already silly (see: Bloodbraid Elf). And yes, you can play the Wanderer in this deck.So what would a Yidris deck look like? It would probably look like a Maelstrom Wanderer deck except with Black cards included. Also, because your Commander's ability is based around combat, you'll want enablers to give you additional combat phases and main phases. While the combat phases are redundant, getting an additional main phase is important, too,especially if you get creatures with haste to attack with. Aggravated Assault, Fury of the Horde, Relentless Assault, and Seize the Day are the perfect cards for this scenario. Plus, you get to Cascade into as much as a 6-drop with Fury of the Horde and even a 3-drop with Relentless Assault or Seize the Day. Aggravated Assault is only 3 to cast, so you'll probably Cascade into it on a regular basis. Seize the Day has Flashback, too. You'll always want to Cascade into these since you'll get to burn through your deck a lot faster.

The rest of the deck will look a lot like your average Maelstrom Wanderer Commander deck, except that you get to include Black removal and other cool stuff, too. Extra turn spells, big splashy creatures and card filtering are the norm for Cascade decks. (You can even play Temporal Extortion!) When some optimal builds are finally discovered, Yidris' true power will become a lot more clear. I don't mind playing Bituminous Blast in a deck like this, that's for sure!

Faerie Artisans is one of the more interesting takes that I've seen on a clone effect. I think it's pretty good, especially when you consider that the copy that they make is an artifact in addition to its other types. It definitely makes opponents be more cautious about what they play, especially creatures with enter the battlefield abilities. Having only one copy at a time to me seems fine, and with doubling effects you can actually get two or more copies of each creature an opponent plays.

Yes, this ability isn't optional, but I think that it being mandatory is what actually makes this card so good. This sort of copycat effect gives the card a lot of flavor, and a 2/2 flyer isn't a bad body on a 4-mana creature with this kind of ability. The Artisans are already seeing play in a great many Commander decks, especially alongside the Commander that they come with, Breya, Etherium Shaper. This is one creature to watch from this set.

“In the age of antiquity, the humans of the region that would one day become the largest polis on Theros were ruled by the tyrant Agnomakhos, an immortal archon. Unchecked for generations, his power grew as he carved out a mighty empire. Kynaios and Tiro, joined by their love for one another and for freedom, rose to challenge him. The people rallied to their cause, and Agnomakhos was defeated. The polis of Meletis was founded on the ruins of Agnomakhos’s empire as a beacon of freedom and enlightenment, and its people chose Kynaios and Tiro to be its guardians.”

I think this is one of the amazing things about Magic: the Gathering. They make conscious effort to include characters that are outside of the norm. Many other games make no effort to do this, having a non-diverse cast of characters.

This is important because there are people that do not have anyone to identify with. There is no one like them. If that is the way it is, less people will be drawn in because they feel different. They feel like they can’t identify with the characters in the game.

I feel like I could write an entire post on the introduction to this post, and maybe I will, but let’s talk about the core topic of the article, which is one of the new Commanders spoiled in Commander 2016, Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis.

I was not only excited by their effect, I was also excited by the story behind them and what it meant for the Magic community.

Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis portrays a interracial, homosexual couple. Their flavor text being: “Look what we fought for. Look what we built together.” These two were originally portrayed in Theros block as the Guardians of Meletis.​

Their flavor text was: “The histories speak of two feuding rulers whose deaths were celebrated and whose monuments symbolized the end of their wars. In truth they were peaceful lovers, their story lost to the ages.” This solidifies the idea that they are indeed a homosexual couple, the first one portrayed in Magic: the Gathering.

So what does this mean for the future of Magic? Sure, homosexuals will feel more welcome and included, which is obviously a boon, but what other resonating effects will this have? You must remember that Commander 2016 is a mass market product, in bookstores and toy stores all over. This means children walking down the toy aisle with stop and see this. They will ask their parents about it, sparking discussion and creating more acceptance of homosexuals.

If this is the media that our children see, if homosexuals get more media exposure, we will morph into a much more accepting and inclusive community, starting with our youth. It will not only help us a Magic: the Gathering community grow more diverse, it will also help the world grow more accepting and inclusive, step by step, leap by leap, product by product.

Kudos Wizards! You have done a exemplary job doing your part in making the world and the Magic community a better place.

This card looks too good to me. Deepglow Skate has an enter the battlefield ability that I'd like to call "super" proliferate. Not only does it double any kind of counter on any kind of permanent, but there are so many decks that have the tools to have it reenter the battlefield multiple times in a turn. Five mana is a bargain for this effect, especially when it's attached to a 3/3 body.The Skate is a perfect complement to decks that run Proliferate cards like Contagion Engine. New 4-color Legendary Creature and Commander Atraxa, Praetors' Voice will be very happy to have this in her deck. as well. Really, I see this becoming a staple in any counter-happy deck running blue. Commanders more than happy to have Deepglow Skate include Vorel of the Hull Clade, Ezuri, Claw of Progress, Marchesa, the Black Rose, and many others.

Maybe it's just me, but when Tymna the Weaver was first spoiled for Commander 2016, I feel like a lot of people misread her. It seemed like people thought that her ability was only concerned with how many opponents were dealt damage of any kind during your turn.

However, there's a reason that you activate Tymna's ability at the beginning of your postcombat main phase. Her X ability is only concerned with combat damage, but the good news is, that means you're getting to often draw at least 1 card while only paying one life. She's like a super Phyrexian Arena, and that's a very good card. Getting 2 or 3 cards is pretty good also, but having to pay a life for each card is pretty fair.

Don't get me wrong. Tymna the Weaver is really good. In decks that already feature a good amount of lifegain, her ability is quite welcome. She's also a Partner Commander, meaning that there are a lot of ways to abuse her ability by adding more colors to the mix. But honestly, it's not that hard to deal combat damage in Commander. I am always happy with her being a conditional Phyrexian Arena on a stick. A 2/2 with lifelink is also perfectly acceptable. But I really think she needs a partner to unlock her full potential. Or maybe she's the Cleric Tribal Commander everyone was waiting for...

My first impression of Kraum, Ludevic's Opus was that he was a much improved version of Jori En, Ruin Diver. With Jori En, you drew a card whenever you played your second spell in a turn. Kraum flips that around and draws you a card when an opponent plays their second spell in a turn. But on top of that, Kraum is a 4/4 with flying and haste. That's pretty aggressive. Plus, he has Partner, so he can pair up with any other Legendary Creature with Partner.

Kraum seems pretty good to pair up with Vial Smasher the Fierce who deals damage to a random opponent for the first spell you cast during your turn equal to that spell's converted mana cost. Kraum draws you cards and Vial Smasher softens up your opponents' life totals. Gaining the black mana is pretty awesome, too.If you want to draw even more cards, you can Partner him with Tymna the Weaver. She not only gives Kraum access to Black and White mana, but has a draw engine of her own. At the beginning of your second main phase, you can pay X life where X is the number of opponents damaged in combat that turn. If so, you then get to draw X cards. This seems like a natural partnership to me. Then you can suit up Kraum and really go to town.A lot of players have found Kraum, Ludevic's Opus underwhelming on his own. But he has an aggressive body and an ability that can draw you at least an extra card almost every round of turns. He's definitely better with a Partner, but I really just like him overall.

Vial Smasher the Fierce is a Commander with Partner that could see play in Legacy.

An alternate time-line version of the Ankle Shanker from Khans of Tarkir, Vial Smasher the Fierce is a Commander with the Partner mechanic with a powerful, but random ability. At first glance, it's clear that Vial Smasher is really good at throwing a lot of damage around.

Whenever you cast your first spell each turn, including on your opponent's turns, Vial Smasher deals damage equal to that spell's converted mana cost to a random opponent. Because this damage is random, she is probably not going to be very popular creature in a multiplayer Commander game. Vial Smasher is really more of a nuisance than anything else, but you can get a ton of value out of this ability.In a one-on-one Duel Commander game, however, Vial Smasher is extremely powerful. Since the ability is always going to hit your opponent, it can become a very short game. Duel Commander starts with a much lower life total. It used to be 30, but this amount was lowered to 20 in September 2016. This could be one of the best commanders in that format.Keeping this in mind, could Vial Smasher even be Legacy and/or Vintage playable? Keep in mind, casting a Force of Will, even for its alternate casting cost of exiling a blue card from your hand and paying 1 life still has a converted mana cost of 5. As Vial Smasher is only 3 to cast, it's possible she could be a way to finish off a game in what's usually quite a fast format.

It also seems possible that Legacy Burn may want a copy or two of Vial Smasher. Even an extra 1 or 2 damage goes a long way in those decks. In Vintage, there are some big spells that get cast, so Vial Smasher can win the game if she's on the board when they are. This seems like a card that could show up occasionally in these formats.As a Partner, Vial Smasher not only gives access to Red and Black mana, but also gives a way to deal a lot of damage out of nowhere. While it's rare that she'll just kill a player out of nowhere, spreading the damage around just for you casting spells is an extremely efficient way to close a game out quickly. I think this gal is going to see a lot of play as a lone Commander, a Co-Commander, and as one of the 99. And if Vial Smasher is as good as she looks, she may even pop into competitive Legacy or Vintage!

Kruphix, God of Horizons can do some pretty silly things in Commander. The Prophet of Kruphix was so good that she was banned in the format. Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix isn't quite so broken but creatures that can produce more than one mana in a turn are always useful. Being colorless mana lines up well with the God Kruphix's ability to store colorless mana in your mana pool indefinitely. She seems a useful member of his 99 and a nice complementary piece to any Green/Blue Commander deck.

As a commander herself, she doesn't seem that exciting. Her deck would basically be focused about drawing a bunch of cards and dumping all of that colorless mana into something like Helix Pinnacle. Or you could draw out your entire deck, play Laboratory Maniac, and win the game by having no cards left. Another option would be to play a bunch of Eldrazi. There are options, but I'm not sure how powerful she really is as a Commander.On the other hand, she has the Partner ability, which allows her to be a co-Commander with another other Legendary Creature with Partner. This seems to be her best use, as in this case, providing Blue and Green mana to build around one or two other colors makes her ability simply gravy. I don't think that I would consider her as a Commander by herself, but as a Partner, I really like her.

Silas Renn, Seeker Adept isn't just another artifact-friendly Commander. Any time he deals combat damage, you get to choose an artifact from your graveyard, and you'll be able to cast it until the end of the turn. This makes for a nice card advantage engine. He also has deathtouch, so this makes people Think Twice about blocking him. But what's most fascinating is that Silas Renn has the Partner ability. This means that he can team up with another Legendary Creature with Partner and become a Co-Commander!

One great partner for Silas Renn is Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder. Not only does Bruse Tarl allow you to also run Red and White cards, but his ability to give a target creature double strike means that you can get two activations out of Silas Renn, and not just one. Allowing a 4-color artifact deck opens up a lot of options. Red provides a lot of firepower and White provides tutor and recursion abilities, plus some White-only artifacts. This combination of colors makes for a deck that can set up its win conditions in new and exciting ways. The other Partner Commander that seems to fit well with Silas Renn is Vial Smasher the Fierce. Not only does he bring Red mana to the deck, but Vial Smasher's ability can really wear opponent's down while you get your board set up. With the Goblin Berserker on board, when you cast your first spell each turn, he deals damage equal to that card's converted mana cost to a random opponent. This makes for a non-political way of doing damage without having to actually attack. It probably won't make you very popular, though, but blue and black have plenty of ways to stop opponents from attacking or greatly disincentive them from doing soWhileSilas Renn's ability appears pretty fair on its own, him being able to Partner up opens up the number of cheap things he can allow you to recast. That's really where you want to be with a Silas Renn deck, consistently recasting cheap artifacts with sacrifice abilities. You will want to make him unable to be targeted by opponent's spells (hexproof) and make him unable to be blocked so that he can connect on a regular basis. Incremental card advantage adds up over a long game and typically the player with the most options has the best chance of winning the game. This guy is going to be fun to build arround and I can see him having a place in the 99 of many other Commander decks, as well.

If you have always been a fan of green/white aggro, Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa is your guy. Also, with his partner mechanic, he can bring another friend with partner to be his co-commander. There are a lot of options to build around Sidar Kondo, especially when he's partnered up. First, let's take a look at the head of the Jamuraa warclan from Magic's the Gathering's Mirage block of sets.The first thing to see with Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa is that he's brought Flanking back! Flanking is a powerful ability that reduces a blocking creature's power and toughness by 1 whenever it blocks a creature with Flanking. This is an ability that we haven't seen since Time Spiral. Being a 2/5 himself, this gives players a disincentive to blocking his attacks.But the most important part of Sidar's ability is the fact that he makes all creatures your opponents control without reach or flying unable to block creatures of power 2 or less. What's interesting about the way this ability is worded is that it affects all of your opponents. So if an opponent is planning on swinging with a bunch of little creatures, they will be unable to be blocked as well, but you will still be able to block. What's even cuter about this ability is that after blockers are declared and no one is able to block, pump spells can be still used to buff your army during the combat damage step.On his own, Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa looks to be a fun Commander to build around. But when partnering with the other Commander 2016 Legendary Creatures that also have Partner, there are many more options that present themselves. This guy is going to be a lot of fun.

With Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder, we get quite a Red/White Legendary Creature. He is one of the Commander 2016 Legendary Creatures with Partner. This means that you can have him Partner up with another Legendary Creature with Partner and have two Commanders! By having two Commanders, you get to utilize the colors of the other Partner to build around, as well. Besides having this innovative mechanic, though, there's a lot to like about this Human Ally.First, there's the bit that he's an Ally! There are a lot of people out there who like to build Ally tribal decks, and Bruse Tarl can serve the function of Commander for those decks. Since he triggers Ally abilities, it's not a bad idea to explore this avenue when deck-building. But what's most fascinating is his repeatable ability. Whenever Bruse Tarl enters the battlefield or attacks, he gives a target creature you control double strike AND lifelink until end of turn. This could be himself, of course. As a 3/3 for 4 mana, he's not a bad candidate to be a Voltron-style Commander.However, being a Partner Commander opens up possibilities. Since Bruse Tarl can gain the use of one or two other colors alongside a partner, the number of potential creatures with nasty combat damage triggering abilities that he can target increases dramatically. With double strike, not only are you gaining a lot of life, but you can create some pretty unfair advantages with combat-damage triggered abilities.

Pretty much everybody said the same thing about Atraxa, Praetors' Voice. Since she's able to allow you to proliferate at the end of every turn, everyone is thinking about running a 4-color Infect deck. So, what's proliferate? It means that you can choose any number of target permanents or players who have a counter on them and put another counter of that type on those players or permanents. Proliferate was a big deal back in New Phyrexia, since you can add poison counters to players with each proliferate trigger. There are plenty of Infect creatures from the Scars of Mirrodin block in White, Blue, Green, and Black. So, you can see the appeal of having all 4 colors at your disposal. But as someone who has never been a huge fan of Infect as a win condition, I'd like to find ways to utilize her a bit less one-dimensionally.What's most awesome about Atraxa is the sheer number of abilities on her. Not only she is a 4/4 flyer for 4 mana, but she also has vigilance, lifelink, and deathtouch. There are so many dimensions to build off of here that a single article can't possibly contain all of the potential builds!

Personally, I'd build a Voltron style deck with Atraxa that utilizes Auras and Equipments which offer +1/+1 counters, such as the Ordeal Cycle from Theros. Then, I would also include other ways to proliferate such as Contagion Engine. Atraxa is always going to be a ton of fun to play with, even if some of the more obvious themes are built around her for the most part.

With the 4-color decks of Commander 2016, Wizards decided to print new cards with the basic landcycling ability. These include Grave Upheaval and Sylvan Reclamation. In addition to their regular effect, you can use to pay 2 colorless mana to discard it and search out a basic land card from your deck to add to your hand.Grave Upheaval is a nice little reanimation card. While most cards like this usually cost 5 mana, it's costed higher due to having this cycling ability. In Commander, paying 6 mana for this effect is OK, especially since the creature you get can be from any graveyard and it gains haste. It's a card I could see myself playing.Sylvan Reclamation is a slightly over-costed Return to Dust. But having the flexibility in the early game to cycle it for a land you need makes it worth the trade-off of paying an extra mana later. It's also nice that it always removes two cards, because Return to Dust only hits one card unless you play it during your own main phase. It's definitely a card that can see a strong amount of play in a variety of Commander decks.Overall, I like Grave Upheavalmore than Sylvan Reclamation, but both are playable cards.

Domain is back in Commander 2016.Prismatic Geoscope may cost 5 mana to cast and come into play tapped, but once you have 4 basic land types in play, you can add 4 mana to your mana pool in any combination of colors that you want. This doesn't have to be just basic lands, as other lands with basic land types count, such as Cinder Glade and Hallowed Fountain.

While this mana rock isn't so good early in the game, it's extremely good later on, especially in helping you cast the 4-color Legendary Creatures of Commander 2016. It will become a staple in many 5 color Commander decks, as well as in 4 color Commander decks. It's passable in 3 color decks, but with only 1 or 2 land types in play, it's just not really worth casting. In the 4 and 5 color decks, though, it's a solid mana rock.

Commander's Sphere is an excellent little mana rock first printed in Commander 2014. It was included in each of the 5 pre-constructed decks. It’s a mana rock that costs 3 colorless mana to cast and supplies one mana of any color in your Commander’s color identity. You can also choose to sacrifice it to draw a card.

Despite being a card that can work in any Commander deck, typically the Sphere has been used in mono-colored or two-color Commander decks. It’s most popular in red decks, but works in any non-green deck that needs another source of mana ramp that can replace itself with a card draw when it’s no longer needed. The Sphere is also particularly good in Daretti, Scrap Savant decks and any other decks that can easily recur it after sacrificing it to draw a card.

Despite being only a common, Commander’s Sphere has become the most sought after card from the Commander 2014 decks. It’s joined by Arcane Lighthouse and Myriad Landscape as the three most popular cards from the set, and those two lands have become staples in many Commander decks. Deceptively simple cards like this are why the Commander product design teams have been able to introduce such useful staples into the format. The Landscape and Lighthouse have seen their supplies dry up in a hurry as they are useful in such a wide array of decks.With the four-color decks of Commander 2016, it was decided to reprint it. This is great news for players who may not have wanted to pick it up as a $2 common, since it is a card high in demand and not many remain on the open market from the Commander 2014 decks. The Sphere should be a staple in four-color Commander decks going forward, as the mana fixing will even be more important than in the one and two color decks it currently sees play in.

Meowth is one of the most recognizable Pokemon around. In Pokemon Sun and Moon, there is an alternate Alolan Form which loses its original Normal-type and gains the Dark-type. Apparently, since Meowth isn't native to the Alolan region, those that exist are feral descendants of spoiled brat cats who once belonged to Alola's now-defunct royalty.

Having Meowth as a true Dark type is actually pretty cool. There's also an Alolan form Persian, but I'm not as thrilled with the design as I am with Meowth's. It will be very interesting seeing what Meowth's move set will look like now that it is no longer a Normal-type at all.

I never thought I would actually be seriously writing about Rattata and Raticate, but here I am... The Rattata and Raticate in the Alola region of Pokemon Sun and Moon are now Dark-type in addition to their original Normal-type. This adaption came from living mostly in urban areas, where the Raticate act as sort of mob bosses and treat the Rattata as their minions. It's a cute story, but what's more important is that retyping.

Raticate always could use Dark-type moves, but now they get STAB (Same Type Attack Bonus) whenever they use those attacks. While you'll hardly see these guys in the competitive arena, it does give them an added edge if you decide to train one for your adventuring team in Sun and Moon.

While today people aren't too thrilled with Rattata and Raticate, at one time they were very useful Pokemon because they can learn so many different moves through the use of TMs (Technical Machines) and HMs (Hidden Machines). Since this is still the case, it's nice to know that they can get an added Dark-type attack boost in case this is who you choose to round out your team with at any given point. Also, since today TMs are able to be used as many times as you like, you won't feel bad at all using them on an Alolan Raticate.

With the looming announcement of the Magic the Gathering Commander 2016 spoilers, a little Green enchantment called Song of the Dryads spiked in price. It was originally printed in the Green deck "Guided by Nature."

This Aura is an extremely popular Commander card, listed in over 9300 decks according to EDHREC. Turning any permanent into a basic Forest is pretty mean for only 3 mana. It's essentially removal for any permanent on the table that's giving you a hard time. Is it really a $10+ card, though? It's been $5 for a little while. Then there was the massive buyout with one copy left listed for $10,000, because someone was apparently being funny. It stayed around $12 for a couple of days as the dust settled and no one really bought any copies above $6 on TCGPlayer, according to the Market Price. With new copies incoming from the Commander Anthology in June 2017, Song of the Dryads would settle in price return to around $5 or less again before slowly growing again for a long time. There's definitely demand for this card, as pretty much any Green deck might want this. It's actually better than Beast Within, in my opinion, and why not play both?

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